[Footnote B:  Her fondness for virtue on the stage she began to think might persuade the world that it had made an impression on her private life; and the appearance of it actually went so far that, in an epilogue to an obscure play, the profits of which were given to her, and wherein she acted a part of impregnable chastity, she bespoke the favour of the ladies by a protestation that in honour of their goodness and virtue she would dedicate her unblemished life to their example.  Part of this vestal vow, I remember, was contained in the following verse:—­

  “Study to live the character I play.”

But alas! how weak are the strongest works of art when Nature besieges it.—­CIBBER.]

As for the “Careless Husband,” the more one reads from it the more cause is there to regret the utter hopelessness of reviving a play so honeycombed by inuendo.  How delightfully, for instance, would some of the badinage between Morelove and the spirited Lady Betty have been treated in the earlier days of the Daly Company, with John Drew and Miss Rehan as the lovers.  We can picture the two, as they would have given the following lines, the one gentlemanly and effective, the other imperious, liquid-voiced, and radiant of humour: 

* * * * *

“MORELOVE.  Do you know, madame, I have just found out, that upon your account I have made myself one of the most ridiculous puppies upon the face of the earth—­I have upon my faith!  Nay, and so extravagantly such—­ha! ha! ha!—­that it’s at last become a jest even to myself; and I can’t help laughing at it for the soul of me; ha! ha! ha!

“LADY BETTY. [Aside.] I want to cure him of that laugh now.  My lord, since you are so generous, I’ll tell you another secret.  Do you know, too, that I still find (spite of all your great wisdom, and my contemptible qualities, as you are pleased now and then to call them), do you know, I say, that I see under all this, you still love me with the same helpless passion; and can your vast foresight imagine I won’t use you accordingly, for these extraordinary airs you are pleased to give yourself.’ [Talk of the independence of the ‘New Woman.’  Who could have been more self-assertive than this eighteenth century belle?]

“MORE.  O by all means, madame, ’tis as you should, and I expect it whenever it is in your power. [Aside] Confusion!

“LADY BETTY.  My lord, you have talked to me this half-hour without confessing pain. [Pauses and affects to gape.] Only remember it.

“MORE.  Hell and tortures!

“LADY BETTY.  What did you say, my lord?

“MORE.  Fire and furies!

“LADY BETTY.  Ha! ha! he’s disorder’d.  Now I am easy.  My Lord Foppington, have you a mind to your revenge at piquet?

“FOP.  I have always a mind to an opportunity of entertaining your ladyship, madame.

[LADY BETTY coquets with LORD FOPPINGTON.